First Wave Summits!

About 60 or so summits from the south side have been confirmed on Everest over the last 48 hours or so. This was the first wave of summit pushes this season. Ueli Steck, the "Swiss Machine" (speed climber) summited without Oxygen (if you don't know who this beast of a guy is, watch him sprint up the Eiger in less than 3 hours HERE - it will blow your mind). An experienced Chilean team of 10 climbers summited as the ropes were being laid down to the summit. Then last night about 45 summits were had between Peak Freaks, IMG, Adventure Consultants, and a couple of other small groups. A second wave was planned to follow but winds picked up and teams were instructed to retreat. The next forecasted push is now supposed to be on May 24/25th or so. News from the north side is a lot more sparse, but from what I hear, they had a good amount of summits in the past 48 hours as well (70 or so). I do know for a fact that legendary guide Phil Crampton and his Altitude Junkies team had 6 summits (plus Sherpas). As always, you can see more detailed info on all this from Alan Arnette's page.
Exciting stuff! So cool to hear positive news after all that drama a couple weeks ago! More to come soon!

UPDATE - A few more teams have recently left the South Col and high camp on the north side to try and squeeze in a few more summits before the window closes. Winds are high, as I mentioned before, so we'll see what happens. More news to come!